I’m not going to post the cover of John Locke’s The Love You Crave, because it’s kind of racy for our standards in these parts. And I’m not even going to link to the e-book, because you can find it if you want to. I do not in any way endorse Locke’s Donovan Creed novels, of which The Love You Crave is the first I’ve read (and, I’m relatively certain, the last). But there are things to be said about the series as a phenomenon, and not just “Tsk, tsk.”
The Donovan Creed novels are a series of “humorous” thrillers about a government agent and assassin. He’s a little like James Bond on cocaine. The books (judging from this one) are full of violence and sex, and attempts at humor which (according to reviews) work for some people, though I’m not one of them.
The book suffers from a severe lack of likeable characters. The hero (not himself very likeable) tries at one point to figure out one of his friends whom he can trust with his life. He realizes that most of his friends have tried to kill him at least once.
If I were giving advice to a writer on how to craft a “light” series about a professional killer, the first thing I’d tell him, I think, is “Keep the innocent bystanders out of the line of fire. Nothing kills the buzz like seeing noncombatants killed, especially if it’s your hero killing them.”
But what do I know? I’m a struggling author in what is laughingly known as the “midlist.” John Locke is laughingly lugging suitcases of cash to the bank.
Not to say that our hero, Donovan Creed, is entirely amoral. He would feel bad about killing a large number of innocents. He tells us so. But killing one here or there, when it suits his purposes, doesn’t bother him in the least.
There’s also a young woman in this book, just getting started as a professional killer. She got her start, we’re told, when she murdered her boyfriend with a knife in the midst of the sexual act. Later she kills a couple businessmen, plus the prostitutes who are in a condo with them.
She is also meant to be a sympathetic character, if I’m reading it right.
As you may have gathered, I didn’t care for this book much. The violence didn’t excite me, the sex didn’t arouse me, and the humor didn’t make me laugh. Or smile.
And yet, the books are selling like mad. According to his Wikipedia page, John Locke was “the first independently published author to sell over 1 million Kindle books using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform….”
I don’t believe these sales figures can be explained by the quality of the writing, or even by the debased sensibilities of the public.
I think the real lesson is one publishers ought to hear—John Locke identified and filled the unmet need in the publishing world. He figured out that books are too expensive. He went back to the grizzled Dime Novel template—roll out sensational literature as fast as you can, and charge a price most people can afford, even if they’re between jobs. American readers groan under the price of their reading habits. E-publishing offers a splendid opportunity to undersell traditional publishing.
Companies that heed that message are likely to prosper.
Maybe even with books that are actually good.
Lars, I agree with you 100%.
I personally find it astonishing that the media industries have not yet figured out what seems to me to be obvious – that in the age of electronic publishing, low price, high volume is the way to go.
Take me, for instance: I am a bookworm, and own probably more than 1000 books, and (in recent years) buy perhaps 15-25 books a year. Of those, perhaps 4 or 5, at most, are bought new. All the rest are thrift store, library sales, or occasionally if there’s something specific I really want, Ebay, Abebooks or Amazon Marketplace.
Why? because for me, any purchase over $5 is something I really think about, and anything in double figures has to be something I really, really want. I’m poor, and therefore tight-fisted. (I can’t remember the last time I bought a hardback book that wasn’t discounted at least 25%). But I probably spend at least as much over a year on books that cost 25 cents to $3 each. If new books were available for $2.50 – 5:00, I’d almost certainly buy several a year – maybe 1 a month.
This goes even more for music and video: I enjoy music, but its not enough of a priority for me to spend money on. Almost the only time I spend money on music is if I see a band I enjoy in person (which rarely happens these days) and buy a CD from them in person. I won’t pay $10 for an album, or even 0.99 for a track. But if you could download tracks for 0.25, I’d probably spend a few dollars a month on music. If I could download (not just stream, and in full or near-DVD quality) episodes of my favorite TV shows (there’s not many) or anime for $1 an episode, I’d probably slowly collect all of several series over a period of time. But I won’t pay $30 for a box set of 5 dvds…
Of course, part of the reason (especially for music) that I’m reluctant to pay high prices is also a knowledge of the iniquity of the system. I don’t know how much you get each time one of your books sells, but I suspect its not a colossal percentage. I’ve known enough people trying to make it as professional musicians to know that if you buy a $12 album, the artist is lucky if they get $1. I’d be much more willing to accept the argument that intellectual effort deserves reward (and “that’s why we charge $12 an album”…) if I believed the person making the effort was getting the reward…
If only some canny publisher would read this exchange…
Publishers are, by and large, stupid.
I mean that with a great deal of respect. Seriously.
But what else do you call it when they never do market research in a bookstore? When was the last time that you or someone you know was asked, as you finished checking out at your favorite bookseller, “What did you buy today, and why did you buy it? Was it an impulse buy?” etc., etc.
When was the last time a publisher sent you a survey?
When was the last time a publisher reached out to you in any way at all to find out what makes you buy the books you do? What it is that you enjoy about the books you read? What it would take to get you to buy more books?
Publishing houses may be full of some very smart people; I can’t say. However, I have to say that, based on their behavior, publishers are, by and large, stupid.
My publisher excepted, of course.
Of course. That they are the opposite of stupid is self-evident.
I second everything Ian B. said, and suspect Roy Jacobsen is right about publishers. I’ve spent most of the last 59 years trying to figure out how to buy more books and music on a tiny budget. Can we nail this conversation to some publisher’s doors??